Mrs: Marriage and Mrs. Mallard Essay

Sophia Turnbough
C. Smith-Instructor
English 101
December 9, 2013
Literary Analysis Final
Mrs. Mallard’s Emotions Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that brings self-assertion, love, guilt, and death all during the span of a life-altering ironic hour. Although happily married to Mr. Brently Mallard, Mrs. Louise Mallard was living in the patriarchal struggles of the nineteenth century. For an independent woman, this may bring slight unhappiness. Throughout this symbolic story, Mrs. Mallard feels a range of emotions firstly grief and ending in joy. In the beginning of this story, Mrs. Mallard is presented as an emotionally fragile woman and this is why her sister is careful to break the news of her husband’s death to her. Rather than feeling numb as Louise imagines a widow would feel, she cries dramatically. Her violent reaction immediately shows that she is an emotional, demonstrative woman. As a result to her strife, Louise resorts to locking herself in a room upstairs, in order to evaluate her newfound emotions. While she is alone, she begins to realize what her husband’s death means to her. Louise begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that enlivens and excites her. Mrs. Mallard’s marriage was dull. She was swept up in the acts of her times; she was lost in the shuffle. The conditions of her marriage, which were assumed to be a simplistic, nice one, caused her to think of the potential life that Brently’s death could bring, even throughout her grief. When her husband was alive, she had to live to please him, but only when he dies does she find the freedom to live for herself again. Louise begins to feel guilty for her new thoughts because she did feel love for Brently. Nonetheless, she still continued to tell herself that none of that mattered because she surely cherished too much her long lost independence even more than her love for Brently Mallard. She did truly love him, but her self-assertion meant more to her (Deneau). In “The Story of an Hour”, Louise’s ‘heart trouble’ and the act of death are very representative symbols that add meaning to the story. One of the main symbols that gives Louise so much potency is her ‘heart problem’. In the story, Kate Chopin writes as if it is only a physical condition. However, it is implied that this ‘heart condition’ represents her range of emotions. It indicates the extent to which she feels that marriage has oppressed her. This ‘heart problem’ is a vague label Chopin uses to suggest that this is a problem both within her body and mind and her marriage. In the hour during which Louise believes Brently is dead, her heart beats strongly- showing that her independence is also felt physically. Her heart races and her whole body feels warm. She spreads her arms wide, symbolically welcoming her new life-“Body and soul free!” It is only when Brently returns to their home that her ‘heart trouble’ reappears, the trouble that takes her life. Another main symbol in “The Story of an Hour” is death. Death is a symbol in this story in two ways. The first representation is that the story allowed Louise to explore the feelings beyong the typical grief of loss that one may feel due to a loved one passing. The news of death welcomes Louise’s freedom that this tragedy has brought to her. Ultimately, the fact of death is certain, the only question being whose death. Secondly, death lurks over the Mallard’s house like a constant specter. People are always trying to keep it away. Mr. Mallard’s death in the train accident came to an unexpected shock for everyone. Therefore, the majority of the story features Mrs. Mallard trying to process her husband’s death, only to find that in the end he had cheated death after all. As a result, Louise was soon to reach her fate of shock and succumbed to her own death which in the abstract was more prepared for anyway, due to her ‘heart trouble’ (Jamil). Irony is a literary element that plays an important part

Related Documents: Mrs: Marriage and Mrs. Mallard Essay

but actually Chopin offers this story to exploit the complexity of marriage as a whole. Chopin depicts this marriage as one where the wife is so unhappy with the marriage as a whole that she is actually overcome with a sense of freedom by the news of her husband’s death.
Marriage often creates a wall between a husband and a wife. I feel like Chopin was doing some foreshadowing in the first paragraph by stating that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble. This plants the idea in your mind…

main themes of “The Story of an Hour” lead to self-love, freedom, and marriage. In addition, the foremost thesis of “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” points at the elusive nature of love as well as love and isolation.
“The Story of an Hour” is one text which points at the issues of self-love, freedom, and marriage. For instance, when the main character Mrs. Louise Mallard’s sister reveals that Mr. Brantley Mallard has died, Louise cries instead of getting shocked as the other women would…

“The Story of an Hour”
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about an hour in the main character, Mrs. Mallard’s, life. She is a young woman with heart trouble. When the bad news about her husband’s death arrives, her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richard have to break the horrifying news to her as gently as possible because they are concerned about her health. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment in her sisters arms. When the storm of grief had spent…

Hour” Mrs. Mallard is awakened with thoughts of freedom following the news of her husband’s death. Louise battles her feelings of love for Brently and love for herself.
Mrs. Mallard never doubted the love her husband has for her, but her love was not as strong. She indicates something is missing in their marriage; maybe a lack of passion, independence and enthusiasm. They are married to cope with society’s norm. “And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not.” Therefore Mrs. and Mr…

subjects of relationships, marriage, and independence. Chopin conveys these ideas through the character Mrs. Mallard, a recently widowed woman who soon after her husband’s death discovers her new independence. One theme that could be drawn from this piece is a relationship with such precedence such as marriage, regardless of how healthy it may be or how happy the people are, is going to be a limiting factor in some respects.
When Josephine and Richards inform Mrs. Mallard of her husband’s supposed…

become very ill. Something was told in this story and it had a great affect on a lady named Mrs. Mallard. She feels grief, freedom, and then grief again within the story.When Mrs. Mallard hears the news about her husband she suddenly felt grief. She has great pain about hearing about her husband. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms”. In this quote you can see how Mrs. Mallard cries and how she abandons herself from the news. She also sits alone in room and looks out…

The representation of gender roles and marriage has always been a controversial issue. However, much can be learned about unhappy marriages when examining the roles of both females and males within the marriage. The examination of gender roles and marriage are seen through the following short stories The Story of an Hour, The Necklace, and Country Lovers, along with scholarly articles based on gender role and marriage. Evaluation of these literary works shows quite clearly that social and economic…

"Emotions in "A Story of an Hour" is a peer reviewed article by Selina S. Jamil. This article talks about how Mrs. Mallard feels in "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. This article gives the reader a deeper insight on how Mrs. Mallard feels and also what she feels like after she finds out about her husbands death in that train accident. The author of this article basically says that Mrs. Mallard does not portray the normal emotions and thoughts of a newly widowed woman.
Jamil states that women in…

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short yet complex story, describing Mrs Mallard’s feelings. It focuses on the unfolding emotional state of Mrs Mallard after the news of her husbands death, and has overflowing symbolism and imagery. It is an impressive literary piece that touches the readers’ feelings and mind and allows the reader to have a connection to Mrs Mallard’s emotional process. Although the story is short, it is complete with each word carrying deep sense and meaning. It is written…

tribulations of a union in marriage, such as the want of independence and excitement; experiences that a marriage can inadvertently inhibit. Not only do both these stories illustrate some of the wants or needs that arise out of marriage, but they both also show how at times; the only means by which desire or necessity can be satisfied or experienced, is within the confines of one’s mind. Additionally, both works illustrate a sense of confinement that can arise out of marriage. Mitty’s confinement is…

Words 2738 - Pages 11

* Test names and other trademarks are the property of the respective trademark holders. None of the trademark holders are affiliated with this website.